Professor of History and Founding Director of Africana Studies and Global Interdisciplinary Studies (GIS), Dr. Maghan Keita has his hands full with numerous research projects. He is exploring race and aesthetics in the Renaissance, the construction of race in medieval Europe, and he’s working on a journal articles that rethinks Marxist historiography. When he’s not in his office on campus, you can find Dr. Keita at his favorite place to do academic work: local coffee shops in the area, like Volo Coffeehouse in Manayunk and the Gryphon Cafe in Wayne.

“I love that electronic databases can put me in any library in the world. You see, I grew up a bibliophile. I went to a black junior high school, and worked in the library shelving books. When I was an undergraduate student, we had the ‘open stacks’ concept in the library, meaning I could explore all the books myself. We also had access to the University’s Special Collections, and the Library of Congress. When I got my job here at Villanova University, they told me that with a click of a button I could be in the Library of Congress! That was awesome.”

-Dr. Maghan Keita